“They had, matching them, three arms, or rather tentacles, issuing from a point about halfway up their bodies.”

1. How many arms did the Masters have?

2. What did Will describe the Masters’ arms as?

3. Where did the tentacles of the Masters originate from on their bodies?

Replace the word in bold with a synonym.
1. My grandfather said his new screwdriver would be very useful/ ______________.
2. There were various/ ______________ jobs he could use it for.
3. He was surprised to get/ ______________ it.
4. We told him it was really an early birthday gift/ ______________ .
5. He seemed very/ ______________ pleased.
6. He said he was glad/ ______________ to have it.
7. He thought it was expensive/ ______________.
8. We were happy that we had thought to give/ ______________ him this gift.

Read this extract from The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.
John Wyndham’s story tells of the planet Earth being taken over by huge plants that can walk and sting people to death! At first, people do not realize just what they have been growing in their gardens.
My introduction to a triffid came early. It so happened that we had one of the first in the locality growing in our garden…
Nobody, as far as I know, felt any misgivings or alarm about them then. I imagine that most people thought of them – when they thought of them at all – in much the same way that my father did.
I have a picture in my memory of him examining ours and puzzling over it at a time when it must have been about a year old … my father leant over, peering at it through his horn-rimmed glasses, fingering its stalk, and blowing gently through his moustache as was his habit when thoughtful. He inspected the straight stem, and the woody bole from which it sprang. He gave curious, if not very penetrative attention to the three small, bare sticks which grew up straight beside the stem. He smoothed the short sprays of leathery green leaves between his finger and thumb… Then he peered into the curious funnel-like formation on top of the stem…..
Triffids are strange plants that come from another planet. They grow rapidly and their sting can kill Joe has discovered a Triffid in his garden and is showing it to Ben.
Write what the children might be saying in the speech bubbles.

Now write their conversation. Remember that the words in the speech bubbles go inside speech marks.
Think carefully about how you use the punctuation marks in direct speech. Try not to use ‘said’ too often.

Writing your own science fiction story
Writing about what might happen in the future is called science fiction. Sometimes science fiction becomes science fact. H.G. Wells wrote a book called The First Men in the Moon many years before man actually landed there. Luckily, for us, the Tripods and the Triffids are still science fiction! Before you write your science fiction story, think about:
- the setting                        - the characters                                 - the plot

For all the discomfort and fatigue, and fears as to what might happen, the first impulse I had was to laugh.  
They were so grotesque!  

a. Will experiences two sorts of fear. What is the frightened of?  
b. Why do you think Will wanted to laugh when he first saw the Masters?  

That, and the fact that their heights varied to some extent, appeared to be the only mans of telling one from another. I felt it was a poor one.  
Later I was to discover that, as one grew accustomed to them, identification was easier than I had expected.  

a. Why was it difficult to differentiate among the various Masters?  
b. How did Will later come to be able to tell the Masters apart?  

Make a list of the main differences between men and the Masters.  

What do these words from the passage mean?  
a. fatigue
b. circumference  
c. pallid
d. orifices  

What kind of fear does Will talk about at the end of the passage?  

Why do you think people feel scared when they see something ‘different’? Is something different always necessarily scary or bad?  

Have you ever come across someone who is different from yourself? What differences did you notice? Describe your feelings when you noticed the differences.